History Literature / AThousandSplendidSuns

* DisabledLoveInterest: Tariq to Laila; he lost one of his legs to a landmine as a child and wears a prothesis. It doesn’t bother Laila at all, though at one point she gets upset when he talks about the occasional physical discomfort it causes. She also hates it when people refer to Tariq as a "cripple" and fiercely defends him. When Tariq finds out Laila has been bullied by a local boy, he removes his prosthetic leg and uses it to beat up the bully to defend her honor. [[spoiler:After they're reunited, he also starts getting migraines (possibly as a side effect of PTSD), and Laila stays up with him at night when they strike, holding him and trying to comfort him]].

* BelatedLoveEpiphany: A familial example with [[spoiler: Jalil towards Mariam. By the time he realizes just how much he loves and appreciates Mariam, she refuses to ever see or speak to him out of resentment over him rejecting her for being illegitimate and forcing her to marry [[DomesticAbuse Rasheed]]]]. Even more tragically [[spoiler: Mariam herself dies never knowing that her father truly loved her and regretted his poor treatment of her]].

* InUniverseCatharsis: Tragically averted. Mariam ultimately [[spoiler:murders Rasheed after having been abused by him for nearly ''three decades'', and in order to save Laila whom he was strangling, but she feels no relief or joy from doing so. Instead, the fact she just signed her own death sentence by killing him, as well as having taken Zalmai's father away from him, makes her heartbroken, and she willingly turns herself in to be executed so that Laila and her family can escape and so she can "repent" for killing Zalmai's father. Suffice to say every reader had sympathy for Mariam and found her murdering Rasheed to be ''completely'' justified.]]

* InUniverseCatharsis: Tragically averted. Mariam ultimately [[spoiler:murders Rasheed after having been abused by him for more than ''two decades'', and in order to save Laila whom he was strangling, but she feels no relief or joy from doing so. Instead, the fact she just signed her own death sentence by killing him, as well as having taken Zalmai's father away from him, makes her heartbroken, and she willingly turns herself in to be executed so that Laila and her family can escape and so she can "repent" for killing Zalmai's father. Suffice to say every reader had sympathy for Mariam and found her murdering Rasheed to be ''completely'' justified.]]

** On the other hand, despite living with Rasheed for nine years and being repeatedly raped by him, Laila only gets pregnant by him once, likely a merciful narrative choice so she wouldn't have to endure giving birth to ''several'' of her rapist's children. It could also partly be explained by Rasheed's older age making it hard for him to be fertile anymore.

** Mariam, who desperately wants a child, has seven miscarriages. Laila, on the other hand, unexpectedly gets pregnant her first time with Tariq]], and, despite even [[spoiler:going through a ''bombing'']] while pregnant, has a complete and healthy pregnancy.

** Mariam, who desperately wants a child, has seven miscarriages. Laila, on the other hand, unexpectedly gets pregnant her first time [[spoiler:with Tariq]], and, despite even [[spoiler:going through a ''bombing'']] while pregnant, has a complete and healthy pregnancy.
** On the other hand, despite living with Rasheed for nine years and being repeatedly raped by him, Laila only gets pregnant by him ''once'', likely a merciful narrative choice so she wouldn't have to endure giving birth to ''several'' of her rapist's children. It could also partly be explained by Rasheed's older age making it hard for him to be fertile anymore.

** On the other hand, despite living with Rasheed for nine years and being repeatedly raped by him, Laila only gets pregnant by him ''once'', likely a merciful narrative choice so the poor girl wouldn't have to endure giving birth to ''several'' of his children. It could also partly be explained by Rasheed's older age making it hard for him to be fertile anymore.

** On the other hand, despite living with Rasheed for nine years and being repeatedly raped by him, Laila only gets pregnant by him ''once'', likely a merciful narrative choice so the poor girl wouldn't have to endure giving birth to ''several'' of Rasheed's children. It could also partly be explained by Rasheed's older age making it hard for him to be fertile anymore.

* LawOfInverseFertility: Mariam, who desperately wants a child, has seven miscarriages. Laila, on the other hand, unexpectedly gets pregnant her first time [[spoiler:with Tariq]], and, despite even [[spoiler:going through a ''bombing'']] while pregnant, has a complete and healthy pregnancy.

* NewOldFlame: Despite not [[spoiler:having seen each other for ten years, Laila and Tariq are still very much in love when they reunite and, as soon as Rasheed is dealt with, immediately marries one another.]]

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Jalil. As war eats his legit family up, he realizes how stupid he is for ditching Mariam. He travels to Kabul to try and make amends, but Mariam refuses to see him, and destroys the letter that he leaves for her. She eventually learns that he died about a month later. In the end, she never reads his last letter, which he left with Mullah Faizullah; Laila retrieves it from his son Hamza, along with Mariam's share of the inheritance and a videotape of Pinocchio.]]

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Tariq and Laila. [[spoiler: They were [[StarCrossedLovers torn apart for years by Rasheed's lies but eventually get together for good]].]]

* FireForgedFriends: Mariam starts off hating Laila, not knowing the real reason she agrees to marry Rasheed, and Laila eventually responds to her hostility by being equally hostile back. Eventually, however, the two begin to bond in the face of Rasheed’s abuse of them both, ultimately forming a mother/daughter bond.

* FireForgedFriends: Laila and Mariam start off hating each other, but begin to bond in the face of Rasheed’s abuse of them both.

* CanonWelding: Minor character Zaman, the orphanage director from Literature/TheKiteRunner, reappears in this book.

* HappilyMarried: Laila's were once, though her mother's withdrawal puts a strain on the marriage.
** In the end, [[spoiler:Laila and Tariq.]]

* HeroicBastard: Mariam, and later, Aziza.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Mariam allows herself to be executed for Rasheed's murder so that Laila and Tariq can leave Kabul.]]
* HeyYou: As their marriage goes strained, Laila's mother doesn't call her husband by his name of other affectionate pet names like she used to do, but spitefully calls him instead "cousin", [[KissingCousins which they literally are]].
** After their [[spoiler: attempted escape]], Rashid doesn't even call Mariam and Laila by their names, addressing them more like dogs or servants.
* HopeSpot: So, so many. Perhaps the most painful is the chapter where Mariam, Laila, and Aziza make an escape attempt that falls apart at the last moment when a man they ask for help betrays them.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Rasheed constantly reminds Mariam about the importance of maintaining his honour and makes her wear a burqa when she leaves the house. But it's fine for him to lust after a fourteen-year-old girl and look at pornographic magazines.
** After years of neglect, Laila's mother thinks she has the right to dictate how she dresses and how she goes about her friendship with Tariq. Laila even aknowledges this in-universe.

* KissingCousins: Laila's parents.

* MamaBear: Laila, to both of her children. Mariam is the same way, even though the kids aren't hers.

* MoralityPet: Zalmai to Rasheed.

* NoWomansLand: Once the Taliban take over.

* VisitByDivorcedDad: As a child, Mariam receives weekly visits from Jalil. She eventually invokes the inverted version and goes to visit him, only for him to refuse to see her. [[spoiler: Shortly before his death, he tries to visit her one last time, but she refuses to see him.]]

* AdultFear: Plenty of, as you would expect from a country cursed with ''decades'' of war.
** Laila's mother loses both her sons.
** Laila [[spoiler: loses both her parents during a bombing raid and is left homeless, orphaned and then finds out she's ''[[TeenPregnancy pregnant]]''. She then marries the disgusting {{jerkass}} Rasheed as her only chance to stay relatively safe with her child]].
** There's a horrifying scene after [[spoiler: Giti]] dies where her mother has to collect pieces of her body.
** Laila [[spoiler: being forced to leave her daughter at an orphanage because they don't have enough money or food to survive. When Aziza is in the orphanage, Laila's only way to visit her is to go out illegally and risk being beaten nearly to death by the Taliban.]]
** When Rasheed's shop [[spoiler: is burnt down, all his family lose their only source of income and the book does a great job describing how they slowly start starving.]]
** The Civil War is this and also a ParanoiaFuel. No one knows when and if their house will be bombed to the point that children drop school because it's too dangerous to even walk from block to block.
** The Taliban regime and their absurdly inhuman laws that left thousands of people starving.

* UglyGuyHotWife: Rasheed with Laila.
* TheUnfavorite: Both the protagonists are this in their families. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter her father is ashamed of, while Laila is neglected by her mother in favor of the memory of her deceased brothers.

[[AC:Provides examples of:]]

* Daddy'sGirl: Mariam was this in her childhood, always defending Jalil against Nana and wanting nothing more than to be accepted into his family. Laila is also shown to have a much closer and loving relationship with her father than she does with her mother. And in the end, [[spoiler:Aziza is shown to be one for Tariq, what with the two of them finishing each other's sentences and knowing what the other needs without being asked]].

** Rasheed acts like this towards Laila when the two stories combine, nursing her back to health from the bombing along with Mariam and treating her with great care and respect. Both Mariam and the readers can tell from the start it's all an act. He drops it once Laila gives birth to a daughter instead of a son.

* BigDamnReunion: [[spoiler:Laila and Tariq reunite after ten years.]]

** Laila starts off the happiest, in a home with loving and progressive parents. [[spoiler:Then the village turns into a warzone, her parents die right before they're about to move, and she realizes she's pregnant with her lover's child. Said lover is presumed dead and she marries an abusive man who starts hating her once she gives birth to a girl. And then the Taliban take over...]]

* ParentalFavoritism: Rasheed is neglectful at best to Aziza because she's a girl [[spoiler: and not his biological daughter, and he knows it]]. Instead he adores Zalmai, but spoils him rotten doing him no favour to his upbringing.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Rare Taliban example. The leader judge of the Taliban court [[spoiler: that convict Mariam for Rasheed's murder]] is polite and respectful and [[spoiler: correctly guesses that Rasheed had it coming. But he still has to condemn her to death.]]

* RejectedMarriageProposal: A heart-wrenching example. After learning his family is moving away from Kabul because of the war, Laila ends up having sex with her [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood best friend]], Tariq. Afterwards, he proposes they marry and leave together. She is seriously tempted, but can't bear the thought of leaving her parents behind, especially her father (he would stay out of loyalty to her mother, who stubbornly refuses to leave). In the end, she has to lock Tariq out of her house, crying, while he begs her to reconsider before [[IShallReturn promising to return for her]]. She subsequently finds out [[spoiler: he died in a refugee camp and that she's [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy pregnant with his child]]. Fortunately, years later it turns out he's actually alive and they finally get their happy ending]].